Friday, January 06, 2017

Friday's Fave Five #412

Happy New Year everyone and welcome to Friday's Fave Five! I'm sorry I was a no show last week which was a bummer, it being the last friday and Fave Five of 2016 but it just couldn't be helped. Real life interrupted and I just had to go with the flow. Our daughter and son in law drove up from Saskatchewan and about an hour out from here they had a breakdown. So it was parents to the rescue and by the time we got home it was late and we were all exhausted and hungry . My time for writing the post just disappeared in a poof. Then Friday was my birthday and my family had plans and I wasn't about to put that on hold while I got on the computer. So here we are in 2017 and looking at the first week to look for blessings and be thankful. Please join us!

1. Family together. This last holiday I am more thankful than ever to have family together at holidays. I gained a whole new appreciation of the effort it takes for those who have to travel to get here. Taking time off from work, making pet arrangements,through snow storms, bitter cold, and sometimes downright scary roads my brood worked to get home. Though we were actually all 6 together at the same time only about 3 days out of the week and a half it was all treasured. Son was in and out as he was working ambulance shifts. Oldest daughter and hubby couldn't make it till the 29th but it was wonderful to have them no matter when they could come. Our youngest, working in retail, had to work a lot but it was nice when she was able to hang out and nice that she had New Years off to celebrate with us.

2. Travelling mercies. Our son works ambulance about 45 minutes from here and towards to the mountains. During the couple weeks he was home and driving to work for his shifts he had some of the scariest driving conditions. Quite a few days it was crazy windy and he drives through an area that is notorious when the wind howls. There were several overturned semi trucks on some of the days and one day he even felt his car being pushed towards the ditch. We had a white Christmas which saw a crazy amount of snow over 3 days and he had treacherous roads while that was happening to contend with too. In fact, sadly, the shift before his had to deal with a horrible fatal highway accident. So getting the texts saying he had arrived safely and seeing him walk in the door after his shifts found this mama very, very thankful!

3. Lovely birthday dinner cooked by my oldest girl. Long story short, because of the car breakdown my birthday dinner was postponed for a few days so we could all be together for it, but my girl wanted me to still have a night off of cooking so she spur of the moment cooked up an absolutely delicious chicken fajita dinner for me. Mexican is one of my favorites meals and so this was a lovely unexpected birthday gift from her.

4. Game time. All my kids are board game fans so when they come you know there is going to be some noisy shenanigans going on. This year we bypassed the familiar and tried some new games. We played a wildly crazy and hilarious game that totally messes with your head called Ghost Blitz. It's listed on amazon for kids but it was all adults playing it here and it was fun. Then on New Year's the young adults played an insane game called Bean Boozled. A gift from my son to his cousin, this game is not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach. It's basically a Russian Roulette of Jelly Belly jelly beans where you spin the dial and for each color of bean you can land on you will either get a yummy flavor or a horrendous one. And you don't know till you start chewing. Defintely a fear factor vibe to the game. You can make your own rules so our rules were you had to actually swallow the bean to get the point. If you spit it out no score. My brave sis and her hubby played the game at Christmas but "politely" opted out at New Years stating that one game was plenty for them. I totally jammed out but gamely tried the lime/ grass clippings which was the tamest of the "yuck" flavors. Gotta hand it to them they played about a dozen rounds. No way I woulda/coulda done that.

I believe this was the reaction to the Buttered Popcorn/ Rotten Egg. Guess which she got.

And this was the dead fish/strawberry banana smoothie color. The bucket being good- naturedly offered by his wife while his the rest of us were having a good laugh tells you which flavor my son in law got. Happy to say nobody actually used the bucket.

And this is definitely the spoiled milk, her biggest disliked flavor at anytime. Unfortunately she never did get the alternate flavor of coconut.

And another game was played, Time Stories. but it was way too involved and long for me but it was nice to hear the young people around the table playing for hours.

5. A really blessed birthday. From the beautifully thoughtful gifts my family gave me, to those who were here during the actual day indulging me in some boxing week shopping, to the fajita meal and finally to the dinner out when were all together I have to say I felt truly blessed and truly thankful for every moment.

I'd like to take this moment to wish you all a very blessed 2017. May you have many moments that lift you, that bring you joy and laughter, and may you find those blessings daily. Thank you for sticking with me on this little space on the internet, the highs and the lows, the prolific times and the writing slumps. Thank you for the encouragement and friendship. It means more than you will ever know.

So now it's your turn. What are your blessings from the first week of 2017?

I love your faves list this week!! i feel the same way about family and i included that in my fff too!!

I am soo glad everyone was safe in your winter weather and that you had that birthday gift dinner.

stay warm and cozy this weekend..lwe have no snow here but it is bitter cold...well ok not too bad compared to some but here in eastern NY we have lived as a family for 26 years and have had only SIX white xmases!!! very different from when i was a kid in central NY. HA!!

A very happy belated birthday to you! I'm sorry about the breakdown but glad it all worked out and all the family could be there together for a few days. My oldest son and husband were off, but my two younger sons work in customer service for an online store and only got Christmas Day off because it is their busiest time of year. But we had that day and the weekends before and after to do things. So glad your daughter made you dinner on your actual birthday as well and that everyone was safe traveling. We love to play games when we're all together! I don't think I can do the jelly bean one, though!

Thankful that the car trouble was resolved and everyone safe. So many concerns with your loved ones on the road. Glad you had several days of celebrating your birthday(!) and the new year together -- even if some of you had to eat those horrid jelly beans! Ugh. No thanks.

Happy Belated birthday to you. Sounds like you were celebrated nicely. So glad you could rescue your kids. We always are parents to the rescue no matter how old our kids get. A meal cooked by your daughter for your birthday...that is great! We were thankful for traveling mercies, too, seeing our kids pull up and then hearing they made it back home safely, too. Hope you have a lovely weekend.

Scary driving conditions is always a prayer reminder. I'm glad your family has been safe this winter (my dad and brother were/are professional/commercial bus and semi drivers--I understand the constant concern for road safety).Happy Birthday to you! It is truly a blessing for you all to be together to celebrate. Special meals cooked by others...and I loved that final photo with all your family together!

I love board game time with the family! Not sure about that jelly bean one, though ... We tried a new game this year called Speak Out. You put this plastic thingy in your mouth and try to talk around it getting your partner to guess what was said. Totally goofy! (The plastic deal that goes in your mouth actually kind of pinches if you have a small mouth ...)

Happy belated birthday! Looks like you had a nice family celebration. I love the board games with the family - so much fun. So glad that everyone is staying safe in all of your cold weather. Have a good weekend.

I can imagine that you were happy to have them all around you ! We too could play cards for the first time with grandson Toby now 6 years old, but that little boy won all the time and I swear we didn't let him win The grandpa was not amused because he is a real player and used to win all the time to be beaten by a 6 year old was too much, lol _

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